Composters Anonymous

[vfem]

Anyone use a wood chipper to chop up their compostables? I'm thinking of getting a used one off of craigslist.

Then I can be lazier!

 

[April Manier]

Anyone use a wood chipper to chop up their compostables? I'm thinking of getting a used one off of craigslist.

Then I can be lazier!

We SHOULD get one as we are constantly buying mulch and dropping poplars on the edge of the field!

 

[thistlebloom]

I run the cornstalks and sunflowers through mine (careful of using too many sunflowers, they can be slightly toxic to some crops ).

Some things would be a little fibrous and have to be disentangled from the flails =aggravating, and some things would be too mushy and just make a slimy mess, but it works wonderfully for coarse mostly dry stuff.

Other things besides crop residues are great after running through the shredder. Straw shreds up fantastically, and of course leaves are great too.

 

[canesisters]

(slightly off topic)
When I first got horses I had the 'great' idea of getting a wood chipper and asking all the folks at church to save their newspapers and junk mail for me. I thought that I could set up the chipper at the stall door and shoot shreaded paper in for bedding. Seemed like a good idea... don't know if it would've worked because I was too cheap to ever actually buy a chipper....
But ohhhh wouldn't that have composted down nicely!!!!!

 

[vfem]

I am a paper shredding junky, and I clear out mail and my drawers yearly from paperwork. I bought a paper shredder at Walmart for $30 and it does a GREAT job of shredding. I dump all that in the compost as well. It even shreds thin cardboard.

My husband and I filled 2 trash bags of shredded paper after I finished doing our taxes the beginning of the month. Walked them out and dumped them in the compost pile. Most of that is already broken down.

Here I am talking compost, and I haven't turned it in a month or so since I added that paper. I need to start moving that compost around the fruit trees. I'm so late again!

 

[Mickey328]

Really excited; we can get composting in earnest soon! We've always had some wee piles and a tumbler type around, but didn't really have access to everything need to get a really serious composter going. I was really wanting to get a couple of pallet bins going this year and now we can. First, we needed a source for a fair bit of "green" for it...and I've found a person willing to let us have lots of alpaca/sheep/cow manure. Second, we needed to be able to haul and set up the pallets. Well we have a young man, who's a co-worker staying with us and as a "thank you" and just cuz he's a really nice young man, he bought us a small trailer yesterday! It'll be perfect for hauling those pallets and that manure and all sorts of other things. How awesome is that??!

 

[journey11]

One bite at a time...one scoop at a time. :tools

I will manipulate this co-dependent relationship to my advantage...he's definitely hooked on my pies!

I would love to have a chipper. I see a lot of them on Craigslist. You have to wonder if something's wrong with the machine or if people just don't use them as much as they thought they would. Boy, that would speed things up now, to have it in little bits.

Anyone have a chipper? Recommend a brand?

Thistle, I've heard that sunflowers are alleopathic...give off a chemical that prohibits the growth of surrounding plants. Some grasses do that too (winter wheat...good for supressing competing weeds) and other stuff I'm sure.

 

[thistlebloom]

My chipper is a Troybilt Super Tomahawk, it's 20 something years old, so it's one of the old Gardenway built ones. I guess the Troybilt brand isn't what it used to be since it was bought out, but mine is a real trouper, it has hundreds of hours on it. I had the carb worked on once and replaced the belt twice. I love it, the last few years it's been doing service as a sapling and branch chipper as we work on thinning the trees.

One of my customers has a Bearcat that I wouldn't give a nickel for. I hated using it, in fact I peered inside when it was off to see if it really had any flails in there.

 

[897tgigvib]

That is very awesome Mickey

 

[thistlebloom]

Really excited; we can get composting in earnest soon! We've always had some wee piles and a tumbler type around, but didn't really have access to everything need to get a really serious composter going. I was really wanting to get a couple of pallet bins going this year and now we can. First, we needed a source for a fair bit of "green" for it...and I've found a person willing to let us have lots of alpaca/sheep/cow manure. Second, we needed to be able to haul and set up the pallets. Well we have a young man, who's a co-worker staying with us and as a "thank you" and just cuz he's a really nice young man, he bought us a small trailer yesterday! It'll be perfect for hauling those pallets and that manure and all sorts of other things. How awesome is that??!

Wow Mickey, that's wonderful! Trailers are so useful, around town and on the property too. What a nice friend you have.